The present invention relates to a device used for expanding articles such as soft bags at the point of sale and in particular to collapsible soft bag expanders.
Retail stores such as K Mart or Wal-mart often display soft bags, such as tote bags, luggage and the like. Many of these bags have a tapered appearance or may be oddly shaped. It is desirable to display the bags in an expanded form in order to catch the attention of the ultimate consumer. Many of these bags are manufactured overseas and then imported into the United States. Soft bags are not generally shipped in the expanded condition because shipping costs tend to be very high for bulky materials as a result of the wasted space in an expanded bag. Alternatively, labor costs for expanding the bags at the point of sale can also be expensive. Therefore, it is advantageous to have a bag expander inserted into the soft bag at the point of manufacture, compress the bag and expander and ship the bag in its compressed form. Then, when the bag reaches the point of sale, the retail seller need only remove force from the bag and the expander inside will return to its expanded shape to puff the bag up into its fully expanded form.
Bag expanders are known in the art from U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,934,803, 4,077,451, 4,141,399 and 4,993,846, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Each of these patents describe a device for expanding soft bags using various mechanisms. Although the prior art expanders have been considered satisfactory, they suffer from disadvantages. For example, some only provide stable support at a single position within the bag and do not provide support throughout the bag. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved expander.